'''William "Bill" Maher, Jr.,''' (born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He hosted the late-night television talk show ''Politically Incorrect'' on Comedy Central and ABC, and is currently the star of ''Real Time with Bill Maher'' on HBO. On June 1, 2006, he also began hosting an internet-exclusive talk show on Amazon.com entitled ''
Amazon Fishbowl''.
Maher is known for his political satire and sociopolitical commentary. His commentaries target a wide swath of topics, from the right-wing to the left-wing, bureaucracies of many kinds, political correctness, Hollywood, the Mass Media, and persons in positions of high political and social power, among many others.
Early life and career
Maher (last name pronounced //) was born in New York City and grew up in River Vale, New Jersey. He graduated from Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, New Jersey, which he attended with fellow commentator Keith Olbermann. Maher is the product of a "mixed" marriage (Jewish mother, Roman Catholic father), and, in his early stand-up routine, he said that he would bring a lawyer to confession: "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned... I think you know Mr. Cohen..." He received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Cornell University in 1978.
Maher has a substantial career as a stand-up comedian and still occasionally tours. He was host of the New York City comedy club Catch a Rising Star in 1979. Thanks to Steve Allen, he began appearing on Johnny Carson and David Letterman's shows in 1982.
He has appeared in several films, usually in a comical role. His feature film debut was in ''
D.C. Cab'' (1983), and he has also appeared in ''
Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death'' (1988) and ''Pizza Man'' (1991). He has also appeared in a number of guest roles on television shows, including ''
Newhart'', ''Murder, She Wrote'', ''Roseanne'' (as a boudoir photographer), and ''Married... with Children''.
Media
Talk show host
Maher is most notable as the former host of ''Politically Incorrect'', which aired on the Comedy Central television network and later ABC. Maher is also currently the host of ''Real Time with Bill Maher'' on HBO.
ABC decided not to renew Maher's contract for ''Politically Incorrect'' in 2002 after he made a controversial on-air remark, in which he, along with guest conservative political commentator Dinesh D'Souza, objected to President George W. Bush and others calling the September 11 terrorists "cowardly":
Obscured in all the controversy was the fact that D'Souza brought up the topic first: the transcript published on the ''Politically Incorrect'' page on the ABC-TV website showed
